


The Green of Meadows

by notnatural



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic, M/M, no talk of the immortality issue, the vaguest sex scene you've ever read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-10 05:04:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11120466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notnatural/pseuds/notnatural
Summary: "You're never out of bed before me." Magnus said, an air of wonder in his voice, like the thought was almost too ridiculous to even entertain."I know." Alec whispered against his lips, laugh bubbling up in his throat. "It won't happen again." And then, as an afterthought, "I missed you."





	The Green of Meadows

**Author's Note:**

> I published this before but I was really unhappy with a lot of it, sO here it is, in an edited version.

Alec woke up with cold feet and warm breath against his throat. Silently, he maneuvered the duvet around so his feet were covered again and pressed a bit closer to Magnus who squirmed in his sleep, mumbling against Alec's already damp skin. The bedroom was dark but Magnus insisted on sleeping with heavy blackout curtains anyway and Alec could see lines of grey around the edges in the window, so he vowed to get up soon. Soon enough, anyway.

Magnus felt infinitely warm against him, soft and heavy so he pulled the duvet closer and wound both arms tighter around Magnus's torso. There's something breath-taking about waking up next to the person you went to bed with and Alec silently revelled in it, even now, even after all these years. He breathed through his nose and ruffled Magnus's hair on the exhale - black and golden green, a new color combination Magnus said he'd mostly left in Dubai some decades ago. It was soft, messy from sleep and Alec's eyes blinked closed again.

After a while, Magnus started wriggling in Alec's arms. He slackened the hold a bit, let Magnus move away from him and watched as he frowned at the cold of the new patch of mattress, before rolling back to him, fingers twitching against Alec's chest. Alec had never met someone who moved as much in his sleep as Magnus and he was secretely, discretely amazed at how they always ended up intertwined in each other anyway.

The slats of light were still grey when Alec sighed. He slid backwards, out under the duvet, without letting in the cold air and without waking Magnus up. Magnus made a sound in his throat, like a cut-off mumble and Alec bent over him to press his lips to his temple. It wasn't a kiss, not really. More a way to feel his pulse against his lips and hoping it would stay there until he came home again.

It had been Magnus' idea to move to Norway. Alec had worked as a diplomat in various Nordic countries, after learning about their educational Shadowhunter systems through the council. He was petulant and unhappy with how far away he went every time, so Magnus had just - gone along. Taken him to hotels and hostels and inns and it had been exciting in a way Alec never found business trips to be. He'd seen more stars than ever before, experienced more mountains and grassy plains and fresh air than he had in New York, in Idris even. He wasn't too big on the cold though - but Magnus was there, constant and warm and something grounding and he'd just - suggested it. Alec started taking part in an international leadership program with the Oslo institute and Magnus' clientele had travelled greater distances for his help before. It was deliberately temporary, an investment none of them knew where led. But it was nice.

The rest of the house was bright, timid morning sun spilling in through the wide windows, thin and golden. With a stack of clothes under one arm and a duffle bag, he went through the big, airy rooms to the smallest bathroom furthest away.

He ran his hands through his hair and looked at himself in the mirror than went parallel with the bathroom counter, from one wall to the other. He considered taking a shower, frowning at the way his curls fell over his forehead, unruly on one side and pressed flat against another but thought better of it. Better to get to the institute early and get done with it early and get back to Magnus early. He dressed in sweats and a t-shirt and a jacket, swung the duffle bag onto his back and activated three runes. After a final swoop through the house, he went out through the back door and started running.

 

* * *

 

 

 

"You know," Kathrine said, when he'd changed into work clothes and entered the briefing room at the Oslo institute. "We could pay someone to portal you from your front door to ours. You don't have to run twenty-two kilometers."

Head of the Oslo institute, Kathrine Løvskov was Norwegian born with a Scottish father and seven years younger than him. She was bright and skilled and impressive in most ways and Alec liked her, a lot more than he usually did other shadowhunters. He waved a hand and sat down next to her at the end of the long table.

"I know a guy who works at the Fjordhotel. Thank you, but I'm fine."

Before Kathrine could answer, the door to their right was pushed open and one of the students came in, carrying a tray of coffee mugs and sugar bowls in his arms.

"Not to be out of bounds, boss, but don't you have your own warlock?"

Alec was really too old to blush at this point, so he settled on glaring at the teenager when he put the tray on the table.

"Out of bounds." He just said. The kid - Johan, he remembered - stopped at the door and Alec fixed him with a glare he hoped conveyed what he was thinking. "His name is Magnus. And he was sleeping."

Johan nodded, lips pressed tightly together, and the door swung shut behind him.

The Oslo institute wasn't built in a church like the one in New York was. Rather underneath a castle that was surrounded by an impressive feat of anti-demonic wards. The glamour was along the same lines as the New York institute, strong too, as Akershus castle was a tourist attraction. Alec had found it stupid at first, with all the massive buildings and castles and fortresses Norway had to offer but Kathrine had explained that the country took such pride in their royal history of architecture that the only way would be underground or elevated.

The underground institute was set in stone and concrete and had the feeling of a fortress. The warlocks who set the wards had full-time working jobs there, as demon-hunters or diplomats. It was an entirely different setting than in New York and Alec loved it just because of that. Along both sides of the briefing tables sat shadowhunters, students and teachers and downworlders as well. Alec tapped his knuckles against the table a few times, before looking over at Kathrine. The two nodded at each other.

"Order, please." Kathrine said, rapping her knuckles on the table like Alec had. All heads turned to them.

"Order of the meeting is as follows. Oral report on problematic missions, special attention to individual cases. Report on education board. Update on security breach at the front of the entrance. Situational report on anti-demonic wards. Report on weaponry and finance. Miscellaneous. Brahmbhatt, if you would like to start?"

Adult shadowhunters stood up one by one and presented their report in addition to the written one they'd already handed in. Future precautions were noted, certain cases were archived and expanded on, missions were moved around between experienced shadowhunters, interns were moved around between teachers.

The educational program was discussed and the professors presented progress and relapse and suggested focus-areas. Alec turned down one and accepted three, Kathrine disagreed with him but that was fine - that was written down as well.  

The warlock to his left, Jette, talked about a slip-up on the wards in the glamour near the main entrance. Her eyes were green and narrow and authoritative as she spoke and Alec knew he didn't need to the stone-set look he sent around the room, but he kept it anyway. For the case of security.

 

* * *

 

 

 

The demons here were different somehow, than the ones in New York.

There were more trees, more bedrock and water and clean air and Alec swore that the demons were a lot less slimey and a lot more ferocious in the 'jump at you and rip your head off your body' way.

He was trailing through a seaside forest, body twisted slightly towards the ground and a runed arrow resting on the bow. The silence around here was deafening at times and loud in an unnerving way. Natives had told him of the forests and fields up north that, when snow fell in the winter, were so quiet and so big and so dark that it felt as though half of your senses had been cut off. They liked to tell him horror stories of people who went insane in the silence.

Next to him, Johan advanced to his side, fingers clenching around the handle of a seraph blade. The skin on his arms glistened from sweat and newly drawn runes. Alec glanced at him.

"Loosen your grip or you'll cramp up," he said and Johan hummed. "Unlock your neck. Unlock your knees. Relax in your shoulders. You're fine."

"I'd do better if Frøya was here." Johan said, brows furrowed deeply. He shimmied his shoulders to relief some of the tension and twisted his neck until it popped.

"My parabatai is three thousand miles away. You're fine." Logically, he knew it wasn't the same. Johan was a teenager and the parabatai bond was almost new - delicate and powerful at the same time, it tied the two together in a way that made leaving each other's side almost physically unbearable. They'd barely left the castle before Johan had become irrational and paranoid, half-way to insisting that they turn around.

Alec stopped and lowered his bow. Johan immediately straightened his back and jumped on the spot, as if shaking off something. He grimaced.

"Fæn, I feel as if my body isn't responding to my fucking brain."

Alec kept his eyes trained on the woods behind Johan, and talked in a lowered voice to preserve the silence.

"You'll learn. You know about the whole 'a chain is only as strong as its weakest link' idea. The two of you are supposed to help each other but you can't - you can't allow either of you to become dependent on the other I - that's only going to weaken your bond. Eventually. You have to be your own completion alone. You get me?"

Johan watched him with dark eyes. It wasn't like he didn't know. It wasn't like he hadn't grown up in the middle of a war or that he hadn't had history lessons devoted to tales about the heavenly weapon and his parabatai, it wasn't like he didn't know of the demon realm or of Magnus or how many accords had been broken in the span of his childhood. He nodded.

"Yeah, I get you."

 

* * *

 

 

 

The sun was still impossibly bright but distinctively closer to the other side of the horizon when he let himself in and wrenched off his duffle bag. He walked through the open foyer with his keys twirling around his finger.

"You've been waking up early lately." Alec turned around and smiled at Magnus in the opening to the hallway. He was dressed in a tank top, of all things, and soft, dark red pants that shimmered when he walked. In three long strides he was in front of Alec, taking both of his hands in his. His eyes were narrow and crinkling at the corners and Alec wondered when he'd woken up. The sun spilling in through the windows danced along the streaks in hair, unnaturally candid, and twinkled in his eyes - golden now. Alec withdrew one hand to touch his thumbs to Magnus' cheek bones. The skin was warm under his and Magnus hummed.

"Hi." He said and Alec smiled again, wider.

"Hi. What did you do while I was gone?" He ran a thumb over Magnus' fingers and Magnus tipped his head to the side.

"Luke called. We talked about meeting up some time next week. Not council business. I took care of those mundane clients I told you about. Read a little. Got through some translations. Repainted my nails." Alec smiled down at their hands. The nails were painted three shades of red, light to dark. He nodded, eyebrows arching and Magnus continued. "I've been productive." He added, then his eyes flickered and he pressed his lips to Alec's. 

Sometimes Alec thought he never actually stopped thinking about kissing Magnus - even when he was, actively, kissing Magnus, sensors lit up in explosive admiration of how soft his lips were, how warm and bright and electric everything felt. It was, possibly, his favorite thing to do with his time.

Magnus' hands flexed on his and Alec let go to circle Magnus' neck, his shoulders. Magnus ran his hands around Alec's back, flattened his hands under his shirt. The kiss deepened with teeth and tongue and open mouths and Magnus removed one hand to weave it into Alec's hair.

"Take a bath with me." He said, and Alec started kissing down his neck in response to the disruption.

"I thought you'd already showered?" Alec breathed, hands fidgeting  with the hem of Magnus' top. There was such a clear contradiction between Alec's faux rejection and the twitching of his fingers against warm skin that Magnus couldn't help but laugh. He sighed when Alec bit down behind his ear, pulled on the curls between his fingers.

"You take a shower to get clean. Come and take a bath with me, Alexander."

The shiver under Alec's skin that washed through him every time Magnus got like this, velvety and dark and silk soft, made everything feel heightened and he loved it. He pressed three quick kisses over the bite mark and took half a step away from Magnus, who in turn took his hand and pulled him through the house, always close enough to touch. Once inside the bathroom where the faucet in the tub was already running, Magnus turned around and softly backed Alec against the door, pulling at his shirt.

"You're never out of bed before me." He said, a certain air of wonder in his voice, like the thought was almost too ridiculous to even entertain. Alec let his shirt be pulled off and took hold of Magnus' collar all the while Magnus's hands were fumbling at his belt.

"I know." He whispered against his lips, laugh bubbling up in his throat. "It won't happen again." And then, as an afterthought, "I missed you." Somehow, by the time Alec had gotten Magnus's tank top pulled up over Magnus' head, he himself was completely naked, Magnus' hands between his legs, making him sigh and hum into the kisses.

"Come on, Alexander." Magnus whispered, shucking the top off the rest of the way. "Let's get you warmed up." Alec stepped into the tub as Magnus snapped and lost the rest of his clothes and followed. The water was warm to the point of scalding and Alec felt his skin blossom in red and tried to will the tension out of his shoulders. Magnus sank down with his knees on either side of Alec's legs and pressed their foreheads together, leading his hand under the water.

It was soft, from then on. Amazingly so, quiet and foggy and just next to mesmerizing, steam rising in the air between them, Magnus breathing against his mouth. When Alec settled both his hands on Magnus's hips, Magnus pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Alec's lips.

Magnus was slow and deliberate, beautifully vain in the way he stretched out in front of Alec, grabbing his shoulder with one hand, sliding over his torso with the other. He was kind of unreal and Alec didn't have the words to tell him so, so he did it with kisses and finger tips slipping on wet skin. 

Time was eventually only defined by the sound of wet skin against wet skin and the water that splashed over the side of the tub. By the heat that enveloped him, omnipresent and constant, filling up Alec's lungs and head and chest, until he felt like his skin was opening, a breathing living thing that pulsed with the rhythm that Magnus set for both of them. By Magnus' fingers against his lips, something that made him feel pent-up and wanting but at the same time was strangely calming, a grounding and constant factor.

Then time was defined by the tremor Alec felt under his skin and the heat in his toes and he moaned into Magnus' neck, feeling his nails dig into soft skin.

"Yes, Alec-" Magnus found Alec's lips, pressing hard out-of-rhythm kisses into his mouth. Alec shook and groaned until the fire had brushed through him, leaving his skin tingling. Through his eyes, the world painted fuzzy and soft, Magnus was ethereal, face bared and mouth open in a groan that sounded like release and liberty in his ears. He collapsed warm and boneless against Alec who finally moved, dragging his finger tips up and down Magnus's back.

Time wasn't defined by anything, for a while.


End file.
